Planners urged to review shortfalls in education sector

Islamabad: Federal Minister for Education Balighur Rehman on Friday said the International Literacy Day was an important occasion for planners and decision-makers in Pakistan to assess and review achievements and shortfalls in the field of basic education and adult literacy.

“We have strong commitment to increase our literacy rate. This resolve has been further strengthened by declaring Education as a fundamental right through Article 25-A of the Constitution. To achieve the goal of free primary education and universal literacy, Pakistan is facing number of challenges, including disparities in educational attainment levels, especially among girls,” he said in the International Literacy Day message.

The minister said although the overall literacy rate in Pakistan had improved, the actual number of illiterate people had also increased.“We have yet to institutionalise adult literacy programmes which might ensure access to literacy for those, who have missed out or dropped out from the schools. It is encouraging to note that number of positive developments have taken place in our Education Sector in the recent past. The number of out of school children has decreased from 24 million to 22.6 million. Adjusted Net Enrolment Rate in Primary Education has increased from 72% to 77%. Similarly, the overall enrolment in primary education has increased from 15.8 million to 17.1 million,” he said.

The minister said the Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training was striving to improve the indicators of education and literacy in Pakistan. He said the two attached organizations of the ministry, National Commission for Human Development and Basic Community Education Schools, were running more than 18,000 non-formal education schools throughout the country.

He added that the NCHD was also implementing a large scale adult literacy programme in more than 90 districts of the country.“We are putting up our best possible efforts to achieve Vision-2025 and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) related to education and literacy. The NCHD is developing a comprehensive roadmap for achieving 90% literacy rate by 2025. I hope that the National Plan of Action encompassing mechanism for achievement of SDGs will be ready by the end of September 2017,” he said.

The minister said this year, the theme of the International Literacy Day was literacy in a digital world and therefore, educational planners should now adopt a multi-pronged strategy for eradication of illiteracy and provision of basic education to all: children, youth, and adults by using Information Communication Technology.

“With the support of ICT, innovative models of quality improvement could be introduced not only in teaching and learning but also in monitoring and supervision. We must also expand access to non-formal basic education programs and emphasis should be on launching long-term and sustainable programmes of functional literacy leading towards income generation for the illiterate youth and adults,” he said.The minister said he was optimistic that with support of all stakeholders, the literacy rate would be enhanced to a respectable level within a short span of time.